In 1501, Michelangelo (yes, the same guy who painted the famous Sistine Chapel located in the Vatican in Rome) accepted a commission to carve a marble sculpture of the biblical David to be placed high atop a buttress on the Florentine Cathedral.

Interestingly, the commission was originally offered to Leonardo da Vinci who rejected it on the grounds that he despised marble sculpture as an inferior art, good only for artisans —(shockingly) he and Michelangelo were NOT best friends.

He scampered up and down the ladder as lightly as a cat, working the stout neck, heroic head and mass of curls from the top of the scaffold, carving the spine with great care to indicate that it carried and directed the whole body and was the mainspring of all movement. There could be no part of the David that was not palpable, and perfect.

— From "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone

It took four years for Michelangelo to carve the famous sculpture out of an 18-foot-tall marble block that had been damaged by another sculptor during the 1460s. Upon its completion in 1504, it was so admired by the people of Florence that they decided to place it in the square next to the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the Florentine government, instead of on top the Cathedral.

The MAIN reason behind this relocation decision, however, was because of what the statue represented to the citizens of Florence.

If you are not familiar with the David and Goliath story, it is from the Bible and tells a tale of the power of "right over might". This sculpture represents the character David who by slinging a rock at the giant Goliath, kills him and, in doing so, saves his people.

Though David had been sculpted by many other artists (Donatello and Bernini both carved the subject) he is usually represented after the fight, with David being depicted as a triumphant hero.

For the first time, Michelangelo depicted his David pre-battle.

With a slingshot over his shoulder, a rock in his hand, tense muscles, and a concentrated gaze, this David seems to be psychologically preparing for the danger ahead.

Why was this so meaningful to Florence at the time?

Italy was not a peaceful, united country in this era. The main cities were ruled by powerful families that were always trying to come up with new ways to conquer each other.

At the time that the David was completed, the Florentines had recently fought a war (and won) against the combined forces of Milan, Siena, and Pisa — the little guy conquered a larger foe!

It took FOUR days to move the statue (VERY CAREFULLY!!!) on tree trunks down the narrow streets of Florence, from Michelangelo’s workshop to the Palazzo Vecchio. And there it sat until 1837 when it was replaced by a copy and moved into the Galleria dell’ Accademia to protect it from the elements.

It is said that when carving David, Michelangelo wanted to ensure that the sculpture would convey beauty and emotion from every angle.

As someone who has seen this famous work, in person from ALL angles (ahem…) I can tell you that this goal was not only achieved, it was surpassed.

The Sistine Chapel recently celebrated its 500th Birthday and, along with a huge party, it also got a warning — it may soon have only a limited amount of visitors.

More than 20,000 people a day — that's 5 million a year — visit the chapel, making it THE MOST visited room in the world! That's a lot of people packed into a space that is only 130 feet long and around 143 feet wide (approx. the same measurements that are recorded in the Bible for The Temple of Solomon).

Though many of these visitors are respectful cultural-tourists, more and more they are herds of people who are there only to say that they were, know little about the value of what they are looking at, and have no qualms about using flashes to take photos (camera flashes damage the pigments in the paintings) or even touch the work (NOT GOOD).

According to Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums:

"The anthropic pressure with dust, the humidity of bodies, carbon dioxide produced by perspiration can cause discomfort for the visitors and, in the long run, damage to the paintings." (From the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano)

The Sistine Ceiling by Michelangelo Vatican City

Interestingly, if he were still alive, Michelangelo himself may not have cared if the work was damaged.

He hated it.

In 1508, he was ordered by Pope Julius to redecorate the ceiling which pulled him away from what he loved most — sculpture. In a letter to one of his friends, he called the work "a miserable job" and wrote, "I'm not a painter".

Not someone to do anything halfway, he mastered the fresco technique and, despite hating every minute of it, created one of the most iconic works of all time.

More than 20,000 people a day—that’s 5 million a year—visit the chapel, making it THE MOST visited room in the world!

So, with human breath damaging this stunning chapel that is important to the pious, the artists, the historians, and mass tourism alike, what is the solution?

Technology.

Apparently, the Vatican is searching for a high-end air purification system that will keep the work safe. Until a solution is found, constant restoration is the only other option other than limiting numbers or closing the doors of the chapel altogether.

Antoni Gaudi, one of the world’s most famous Modernist Architects, combined Gothic influences with inspiration from nature and innovative materials to create the marvelous Park Guell, located on a hill at the northern edge of Gracia in Barcelona.

Known for creating structures that are hard to fathom even in this day and age, his plans for the public park were so unusual for his time that he rolled up his sleeves and worked alongside the craftsmen to ensure that his vision was correctly executed.

The park was completed and open to the public in 1923.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Park Guell is a symphony of color and form. The most eye-catching element of the park is by far the surreal, abstract mosaics that cover fountains, walls, staircases, rooftops and more.

One of the most recognized structural elements is the serpentine bench that winds its way along the edge of the Hall of One Hundred Columns, originally built to be the location for a community market.

The seat of the bench was built to ‘cradle the buttocks’, and it is rumored that when constructing it Gaudi had one of the workers sit bare-assed in the wet cement to add that anatomically correct "touch." (Lovely to think about as you sit sunning yourself on it).

the most eye-catching element of the park is by far the surreal, abstract mosaics that cover fountains, walls, staircases, rooftops and more

The thousands of multicolored mosaics of flowers, geometric patterns and the odd religious symbol that cover this well loved Barcelonian monument were made by re-using broken ceramic remnants from local pottery workshops.

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